TRUE ORTHODOX SPIRITUAL ZEAL AND STRUGGLE
By Fr. Dr. Photios+ (W)
Without the cross, without struggle, there can be no salvation! This is what true Christianity teaches. The teaching on struggle, on the bearing of the cross, runs like a scarlet thread through all the Sacred Scriptures and all of the history of the Church, and the lives of those holy ones who were pleasing unto God, the spiritual athletes of Christian piety, clearly bear witness to this (emphasis supplied).[1]
The Father gave us His Son because of His love for us. Christ’s purpose in coming is to save us, but those who do not believe in Him are already condemned because of their unbelief. Christ is the door to salvation. If we enter that door, we can be saved. If not, we are condemned.
There is nothing unjust about this matter. The Lord is just as well as merciful, but He gives us the freedom to choose- Him or not? We make our choices. Any other except the Lord Jesus Christ is unacceptable. No one can enter the Lord’s door except by His way. It is Scripturally clear that although Christ’s purpose in coming is to save; those who will not believe are condemned.
It’s our free choice to make- Jesus Christ or the world? That is the question. The Lord doesn’t force us to believe and follow Him. He wants disciples around Him who have willingly surrendered themselves to Him. Thus, our salvation or perdition depends on our own wills. “Christian, your salvation or perdition depends on your own will!”[2] Faith is necessary, of course, and good deeds stem from our faith, St. James the Just of Jerusalem and St. Paul are not at ‘loggerheads’ on this issue. Faith without good works is dead:
What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him?
If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food,
And one of you say unto them, depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit?
Even so faith, if it hath not works is dead, being alone.
Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: show me thy faith without thy works, and I will show thee my faith by my works
Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble.
But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?
Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar?
Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect?[3]..
For as the body without the spirit, is dead, so faith without works, is dead also.[4]
As Christians, we have a duty to deny ourselves. We must revolutionize ourselves in the Way of Christ. This requires our restructuring and transformation into imitations, facsimiles if you will, of Christ, at the same time realizing that unlike Him we sin. Then we must take up the Cross and follow Him. The interiors of ourselves, our hearts, must be softened and we must love our neighbors. We must realize that the road will be rocky and steep. We know it is narrow. Our choice to follow Christ involves struggle and suffering. Christianity has always known struggle, strife and persecution. Struggle and suffering are part of our trials en route to salvation. They are accepted and borne with humility by the True Orthodox Christian.[5]
Christ calls us to be spiritual athletes[6] since we are not of this world.[7] According to the Word of God, holy zeal, the “fire of Divine zeal” for the glory of Christ is the central thing in Christianity; without it, Christians are spiritually dead being Christians in name only.[8]
Must we all suffer? Yes:
We must bear crosses because we call ourselves and wish to be Christians, that is, disciples, followers and members of Jesus Christ. Whatever the Master, Leader and Head is like, such ought also His disciples, followers and members to be. Jesus Christ entered into His glory through sufferings; consequently we too can enter there only by the way of sufferings.[9]
Suffering is the rule for all Christians and indeed “is the pattern for the Christian life”.[10] As Christians, we are to expect suffering not complain about or to the Lord when it happens. For the Christian “it is necessary”. [11] When we are hated by the “world lying in evil,” we are on the right track. If we are loved by it, we’re on the wrong course.[12] St. James the Just of Jerusalem: “The friendship of the world is enmity with God.”[13] Being hated by the world means we are “true followers” of the Lord.[14]
Concentration upon patristic Orthodoxy is essential for our salvation. Patristic Orthodoxy requires constant inner sobriety and struggle. The Truth is within “the patristic teaching that is recognized by the whole Church”.[15]
Our goal as Orthodox Christians is deification. Don’t let anyone in this world talk you out of it. Our salvation is not at a certain point; rather, it is a process of spiritual improvement consciously accepted and entered into by us. Little- by- little, bit- by- bit, step-by-step, we ‘chip away’ at our spiritual inadequacies. As we navigate the Royal Path, our salvation beckons. It takes struggle! Are we up to the challenge?
- In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
[1] See Archbishop Averky (Taushev), A Reminder to Us that True Christianity is a Struggle, p.1, at http://www.sisqtel.net/~williams/archbi ... inder.html
[2] St. Innocent, Metropolitan of Moscow, Enlightener of America, Indication of the Way Into the Kingdom of Heaven,Part 3, p. 1, http://www.stvladimirs.ca/library/indic ... three.html.
[3] St. James 2: 14-22
[4] id., 2:26
[5] St. Innocent, op. cit., see http://www.stvladimirs.ca/library/indic ... three.html , pp.1-9 for an inspired discussion.
[6] Averky, op. cit.p.1.
[7] St. John 15:19
8] Archbishop Averky (Taushev), Holy Zeal, p.1, http://www.sisqtel.net/~williams/archbi ... yzeal.html.
[9] St. Innocent, op. cit., p.7.
[10] R. Scott Clark, Against the Theology of Glory p.3, http://public.csusm.edu/public/guests/r ... ering.html.
[11] id., p.8.
[12] Archbishop Averky (Taushev), See then that Ye Walk Circumspectly, p.3 (reprinted from The Just Shine Like the Stars, West Coast Orthodox Supply, 1983), http://www.sisqtel.netwilliams/archbishopaverky/ seethenthatyewalkcircumspectly.html.
[13] St. James 4:4
[14] Averky, See then that Ye Walk Circumspectly, p. 3.
[15] see the spiritual article by Tatiana Senina (tr. by Vladimir Moss, U.K.) In What Do Contemporary ‘Orthodox’ Believers Believe”, The Struggler, October 2000-January 2001, pp.12-15, at p.15 (from an English translation of Tatiana Senina’s “Deception,” which appeared originally in Russian in Vertograd-inform, No.18-19, April-May 2000.